A cold war in the 21st-century seemed unlikely… until now.
Tariffs by the United States on $200 billion worth of Chinese products and retaliatory tariffs by China on $60 billion worth of American goods went into effect on Monday.
While the United States and China are competing for global supremacy, they maintain mutual agreements to handle their complicated relationship. But, the tide might be turning…
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Jim Rogers, author of “A Bull in China: Investing Profitably in the World’s Greatest Market” and a renowned investor who co-founded the first global investment fund with George Soros in 1973, has made numerous extraordinary predictions about trade market in the past, including the fall of the US dollar.
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The latest tariffs on American and Chinese goods aren’t as severe as expected, making stocks rise on Tuesday. Substantial profits in tech also propelled market gains.
The S&P 500 increased 0.5 percent to close at 2,904.31, headed by buyer discretionary spending and industrials. It is also less than half a percent from its record high. (more…)
Gold refineries in Switzerland sent a record amount of gold to Shanghai last December, and Russia is buying gold in droves as well, as the United States experiences a time of tumultuous politics and the european banking system is reported to be on the verge of collapse.
Figures released at the end of January by Federal Customs Administrations showed that Switzerland, a world leader in gold production, sent 158 tonnes of gold to China, a five time increase over November’s sum and nearly three times the volume in December 2015. (more…)
Numerous nations throughout the world are currently dealing with currency or debt crises of one kind or another. Greece has stolen the headlines where they’ve needed to secure a bailout from the European Union so as to not go broke, and Puerto Rico, a US protectorate, has said it will not have the funds to service its debt. The Chinese stock market has collapsed with the government instituting controls to prop it up, while in Venezuela inflation ravages the food aisle, which have gone bear in recent months.
In China, you see gold is clear winner in the wake of recent turmoil. Included in this article are the regional interest data points from Google Trends.
Interest in gold in China has taken off.
Regional interest in gold
Regional interest in silver in China
Included in this article are the data points for regional interest. In China, regional interest in Bitcoin is different than the other countries. Whereas in Greece, Puerto Rico and Venezuela interest in Bitcoin is tied to the main cities of the country, in China the interest appears more diffuse.
Regional interest in China in Bitcoin
As you see below, interest in both gold and Bitcoin have increased in terms of Google Trends search queries in Greece. Gold has seen a modest spike, while Bitcoin is clear winner in terms of new, recent interest in Greece.
Gold has seen a small uptick in Greece located search queries, while Bitcoin has seen a considerable spike.
As in the remaining countries, precious metals queries occurs throughout the nation, while Bitcoin queries is more-so located in Athens.
Here you see Greeks interested in gold live throughout the country.
Here you see interest in silver spread throughout Greece.
For Bitcoin, most Greeks are centered in Athens who query Bitcoin.
In Venezuela, gold and Bitcoin have seen an increase in search queries, silver not so much.
And regional interest in Venezuela:
In Puerto Rico, similar trends:
Interest in gold in Puerto Rico is spread out throughout the island.
Interest in silver in Puerto Rico is more centralized than gold.
Gold antiquities looted from China were returned by a French billionaire after a long effort by Beijing to recoup pillaged art. The antiquities were purchased by billionaire luxury tycoon François Pinault. The four gold heads of prey birds are worth €1 million (£710,000). Mr Pinault, owner of brands from Gucci to Saint Laurent, donated the 7th century BC solid gold works to Paris’s Guimet museum of Asian art 15 years ago.
It was soon discovered the antiquities were stolen in 1992 from the tomb of a noble of the Zhou dynasty in Gansu province. China says the birds of prey were pillaged amid a wave of thefts in the early-to-mid nineties by farmers in the western state of Qins. A corrupt civil servant apparently smuggled the antiques out of China and Mr Pinault bought the birds of prey unsuspectingly.
Chinese authorities filed a complaint 10 years ago, but discreetly maintained they wanted a diplomatic restitution. Art Newspaper reported in April that Mr Pinault handed the four birds of prey heads to the Chinese embassy in Paris and did not ask for compensation.
Another collector, Christian Deydier, returned 28 other artefacts. China promotes the repatriation of pillaged works, putting pressure on auction houses to cancel sales of items and even buying them via a corporate offshoot of the people’s Liberation Army, the China Poly Group. China has a big thirst for gold as the world’s largest consumer of gold.
Photo: Rex Features.
Trading on the New York Stock Exchanged resumed Wednesday after being halted for about four hours due to “unknown internal technical reasons.” Internal technical issues are being cited for the reason why NYSE shut down trading at 11:32am EST, which also shut down trading on the NYSE MKT exchange, a market where small companies are traded.
In August 2013 a “Flash Freeze” shut the Nasdaq down for hours, as a “problem with NYSE systems” was blamed. Today’s is but the fourth trading halt at the NYSE due to technical problems in 15 years. Stock trading did not cease completely, as NYSE-listed stocks were still being traded on 11 other exchanges, like the Nasdaq. (more…)
The 21st Century Digital Currency Arm’s Race: America’s Only Hope?
So, let’s be clear: 56.7577° N, 86.4196° W and 40.4230° N, 98.7372° W. In the former geographical coordinates, Bitcoin is free of banking regulation. However, in the latter, Bitcoin is not free from banking regulation.
The case grows increasingly murky in 32.9043° N, 110.4677° E, otherwise known as China. Perhaps the geographical coordinates of 35.1234° S, 71.5720° W – that is Chile – will keep with their recent history of laissez-faire economic policies and be kind to Bitcoin.
Or maybe one with bitcoins would be best off at 18.1667° S, 178.4500° E, far away from civilization in Fiji. (more…)